Mark Van Vugt
Biographic Data
| ID | 129060 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Van Vugt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Vugt |
| SIGNATURE | VAN VUGT M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8939-7523 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 55 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 526 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
From Dominance to Harassment: The Hidden Role of Sexual Intent Perceptions in the Workplace
Sexual intent perceptions refer to instances in which individuals infer sexual interest from other people’s behavior. While past research has explored this in dating settings with student samples, we examine it in a workplace setting. In Study 1 ( N = 212), we found that employees with a strong desire to assert dominance were more likely to infer sexual interest from the behaviors of a different-gendered colleague, regardless of their own gender,…
The influence of charismatic leadership on followers’ attentional processes
We examined how followers process consistent versus inconsistent messages from a highly charismatic versus non-charismatic leader on a theme relevant to both leader and follower (i.e., climate change). We conducted a lab eye-tracking experiment (Study 1, N = 32) and an online reading experiment (Study 2, N = 1729) to observe followers’ reactions towards (written) information that they received from a leader with high versus low charisma and that …
Cross-cultural evidence that intergroup conflict heightens preferences for dominant leaders: A 25-country study
Across societies and across history, seemingly dominant, authoritarian leaders have emerged frequently, often rising to power based on widespread popular support. One prominent theory holds that evolved psychological mechanisms of followership regulate citizens' leadership preferences such that dominant individuals are intuitively attributed leadership qualities when followers face intergroup conflicts like war. A key hypothesis based on this the…
Towards an ecological model of the dark triad traits
What traits do citizens value in leaders during war? Experimental and panel-based evidence from Ukraine in 2022
When do citizens want a dominant political leader? A prominent Conflict-Sensitivity Hypothesis suggests such preferences arise during intergroup conflict, yet it remains untested in a real war. We report results from an experiment embedded in a two-wave panel survey with 1,081 Ukrainians (811 re-interviewed) at the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion. We find that respondents generally value competence and warmth over dominance in leaders. Yet, war i…
Stereotypes versus preferences: Revisiting the alpha male stereotype of leadership
Ecology, culture and leadership: Theoretical integration and review
The effect of charismatic leaders on followers’ memory, error detection, persuasion and prosocial behavior: A cognitive science approach
Adopting a cognitive and follower-centric approach to charismatic leadership, we hypothesized that followers show lower levels of cognitive effort, reflected in superficial processing of factually correct information when listening to and viewing a charismatic leader. We conducted two experiments, using a 2 (charismatic versus neutral) × 2 (female versus male leader) between-subjects design and videos of trained actors delivering a speech. We exa…
Covid-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action.
From genes to minds to cultures: Evolutionary approaches to leadership
Evolutionary perspectives are part of any comprehensive explanation of leadership and, more generally, hierarchy formation in groups. This editorial describes contributions to a special issue on the theme of “The evolution and biology of leadership: A new synthesis”, and we reach four main conclusions. First, leadership has been a powerful force in the biological and cultural evolution of human sociality. Humans have evolved a range of cognitive …
Obstacles and opportunities for female leadership in mammalian societies: A comparative perspective
Giving Guys Get the Girls: Men Appear More Desirable to the Opposite Sex When Displaying Costly Donations to the Homeless
One of the evolutionary adaptive benefits of altruism may be that it acts as an honest (reliable) signal of men’s mate quality. In this study, 285 female participants were shown one of three video scenarios in which a male target took £30 out of a cash machine (ATM) and gave either a lot (£30), a little (£1), or nothing to a homeless man. The participants rated the male target on his attractiveness, their short- and long-term mate preferences tow…
Sex differences in trust and trustworthiness: A meta-analysis of the trust game and the gift-exchange game
We present a meta-analytic review of the literature on sex differences in the trust game (174 effect sizes) and the related gift-exchange game (35 effect sizes). Based on parental investment theory and social role theory we expected men to be more trusting and women to be more trustworthy. Indeed, men were more trusting in the trust game (g = 0.22), yet we found no significant sex difference in trust in the gift-exchange game (g = 0.15). Regardin…
Gendered outgroup prejudice: An evolutionary threat management perspective on anti-immigrant bias
Are male and female immigrants viewed similarly or differently? Consistent with an evolutionary threat management perspective, we suggest that the answer to this question depends upon what types of threats immigrant groups are perceived as posing. In the present study, we compared attitudes toward male and female immigrants from either a violent ecology (e.g., Syria) or a pathogen-rich ecology (e.g., Liberia). We hypothesized that people would ha…
Power influences the expression of Honesty-Humility: The power-exploitation affordances hypothesis
Psychological individual differences as predictors of refugees’ local language proficiency
Learning the local language is important for the successful integration of immigrants. Previous research has identified a number of sociodemographic factors that are associated with the effectiveness of local language acquisition among immigrants, but little is known about the influence of psychological differences on immigrants’ local language acquisition. In the present research, individual differences in general mental ability ( GMA ), work se…
Female leadership: A transdisciplinary perspective
Conspiracy Theories: Evolved Functions and Psychological Mechanisms
Belief in conspiracy theories—such as that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job or that the pharmaceutical industry deliberately spreads diseases—is a widespread and culturally universal phenomenon. Why do so many people around the globe believe conspiracy theories, and why are they so influential? Previous research focused on the proximate mechanisms underlying conspiracy beliefs but ignored the distal, evolutionary origins and function…
The Evolutionary Mismatch Hypothesis: Implications for Psychological Science
Human psychological mechanisms are adaptations that evolved to process environmental inputs, turning them into behavioral outputs that, on average, increase survival or reproductive prospects. Modern contexts, however, differ vastly from the environments that existed as human psychological mechanisms evolved. Many inputs now differ in quantity and intensity or no longer have the same fitness associations, thereby leading many mechanisms to produc…
Male Adaptations that Facilitate Success in War
Evolution, situational affordances, and the Hexaco model of personality
Charismatic leadership and the evolution of cooperation
Pride before the fall: (Over)confidence predicts escalation of public commitment
Historical and experimental evidence of sexual selection for war heroism
Evolutionary Group Dynamics
Leadership, followership, and evolution: Some lessons from the past
This article analyzes the topic of leadership from an evolutionary perspective and proposes three conclusions that are not part of mainstream theory. First, leading and following are strategies that evolved for solving social coordination problems in ancestral environments, including in particular the problems of group movement, intragroup peacekeeping, and intergroup competition. Second, the relationship between leaders and followers is inherent…
Exit, voice and loyalty: Analytic and empirical developments
This paper seeks to reconstruct and revitalize the famous Hirschman framework by providing a comprehensive review of the current use of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’. We begin by critically examining Hirchman's original account, and then look at the way his argument has been extended in different fields both conceptually and empirically. We suggest that while advances have been made, the results so far are somewhat disappointing given the perceptiven…
Evolutionary Origins of Leadership and Followership
Drawing upon evolutionary logic, leadership is reconceptualized in terms of the outcome of strategic interactions among individuals who are following different, yet complementary, decision rules to solve recurrent coordination problems. This article uses the vast psychological literature on leadership as a database to test several evolutionary hypotheses about the origins of leadership and followership in humans. As expected, leadership correlate…
The Evolutionary Bases for Sustainable Behavior: Implications for Marketing, Policy, and Social Entrepreneurship
How can evolved human nature be leveraged to help eliminate or alleviate environmental problems? The authors examine the evolutionary bases of destructive and ecologically damaging human behavior. They propose that many modern environmental and social problems are caused or exacerbated by five adaptive tendencies rooted in evolutionary history: (1) propensity for self-interest, (2) motivation for relative rather than absolute status, (3) proclivi…
Autocratic leadership in social dilemmas: A threat to group stability
Leadership in social dilemmas: The effects of group identification on collective actions to provide public goods
Two experimental studies investigated the role of group identification in the selection of and cooperation with leaders to manage public good dilemmas. The findings of the 1st study revealed that there was a general preference to select leaders with a legitimate power base (i.e., democratic, elected, and internal leaders), but these preferences were particularly pronounced when people's identification with their group was high rather than low. Th…
Intergroup and Intragroup Aspects of Leadership in Social Dilemmas: A Relational Model of Cooperation
Social Identity as Social Glue: The Origins of Group Loyalty
In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the role of social identity in fostering group loyalty, defined as staying when members can obtain better outcomes by leaving their group. In Experiment 1, high (vs. low) identifiers expressed a stronger desire to stay in the group in the presence of an attractive (vs. unattractive) exit option. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this basic finding and tested several explanations. The results suggest that hi…
The height leadership advantage in men and women: Testing evolutionary psychology predictions about the perceptions of tall leaders
Research suggests that tall individuals have an advantage over short individuals in terms of status, prestige, and leadership, though it is not clear why. Applying an evolutionary psychology perspective, we predicted that taller individuals are seen as more leader-like because they are perceived as more dominant, healthy, and intelligent. Being fit and physically imposing were arguably important leadership qualities in ancestral human environment…
Sex differences in trust and trustworthiness: A meta-analysis of the trust game and the gift-exchange game
We present a meta-analytic review of the literature on sex differences in the trust game (174 effect sizes) and the related gift-exchange game (35 effect sizes). Based on parental investment theory and social role theory we expected men to be more trusting and women to be more trustworthy. Indeed, men were more trusting in the trust game (g = 0.22), yet we found no significant sex difference in trust in the gift-exchange game (g = 0.15). Regardin…
Genuine giving or selfish sacrifice? The role of commitment and cost level upon willingness to sacrifice
This research uses interdependence theory to examine the link between commitment, costs, and willingness to sacrifice within interdependence dilemmas occurring in intimate relationships. Advancing prior work, which has demonstrated a positive association between relationship commitment and willingness to sacrifice, we investigated the moderating role of the cost of sacrifice in a scenario‐based survey. Consistent with our hypotheses it was found …
Cooperation for reputation: Wasteful contributions as costly signals in public goods
Why do people persistently contribute to public goods and does it matter to them if their donation makes a difference? A costly signalling perspective suggests that donors might be more concerned about their reputation than the utility of their helping act. We report data on two step-level public goods experiments. We find that in public (vs. private) conditions, contributions go up even when the public good is already provided (Experiment 1) or …
Men behaving nicely: Public goods as peacock tails
Insights from sexual selection and costly signalling theory suggest that competition for females underlies men's public good contributions. We conducted two public good experiments to test this hypothesis. First, we found that men contributed more in the presence of an opposite sex audience, but there was no parallel effect for the women. In addition, men's public good contributions went up as they rated the female observer more attractive. In th…
Naturally Green: Harnessing Stone Age Psychological Biases to Foster Environmental Behavior
It is widely agreed that humans must reduce their environmental impact. We propose that an improved understanding of our evolved human nature can help to improve programs and policies to address environmental problems. Combining evolutionary and social psychological approaches, we argue that environmental problems are often caused or exacerbated by five evolutionarily adaptive psychological biases: Humans (1) value personal over collective outcom…
Central, Individual, or Collective Control: Social Dilemma Strategies for Natural Resource Management
In this article, natural resource management is conceptualized as a social dilemma, a conflict between the short-term self-interest of users and the long-term collective interest of the user community. A self-interest versus community perspective is offered to explain individuals' decision making in resource dilemmas. The self-interest model assumes that users seek to maximize their personal benefits regardless of the collective implications. To …
How a Structural Solution to a Real-World Social Dilemma Failed: A Field Experiment on the First Carpool Lane in Europe
In the current field experiment we evaluate a structural solution to a real-life social dilemma by examining the effects of a carpool priority lane on judgments and preferences concerning the decision to commute by carpool (i.e., the presumed cooperative option) or driving alone (i.e., the presumed noncooperative option). Our general hypothesis was that this intervention would evoke a process of self-justification in solo drivers, arising from fe…
Psychological individual differences as predictors of refugees’ local language proficiency
Learning the local language is important for the successful integration of immigrants. Previous research has identified a number of sociodemographic factors that are associated with the effectiveness of local language acquisition among immigrants, but little is known about the influence of psychological differences on immigrants’ local language acquisition. In the present research, individual differences in general mental ability ( GMA ), work se…
Pride before the fall: (Over)confidence predicts escalation of public commitment
Power influences the expression of Honesty-Humility: The power-exploitation affordances hypothesis
Gendered outgroup prejudice: An evolutionary threat management perspective on anti-immigrant bias
Are male and female immigrants viewed similarly or differently? Consistent with an evolutionary threat management perspective, we suggest that the answer to this question depends upon what types of threats immigrant groups are perceived as posing. In the present study, we compared attitudes toward male and female immigrants from either a violent ecology (e.g., Syria) or a pathogen-rich ecology (e.g., Liberia). We hypothesized that people would ha…
Concerns About the Privatization of Public Goods: A Social Dilemma Analysis
This study advanced a social dilemma analysis to examine the role of self-interested and prosocial concerns in the approval ofa real-life structural solution: the privatization of the British national railway system in 1996. As predicted, disapproval of privatizing this public good increased when people were more concerned about the transition costs of privatization, and about how privatization would affect their personal outcomes (e.g., travel c…
Cross-cultural evidence that intergroup conflict heightens preferences for dominant leaders: A 25-country study
Across societies and across history, seemingly dominant, authoritarian leaders have emerged frequently, often rising to power based on widespread popular support. One prominent theory holds that evolved psychological mechanisms of followership regulate citizens' leadership preferences such that dominant individuals are intuitively attributed leadership qualities when followers face intergroup conflicts like war. A key hypothesis based on this the…
What traits do citizens value in leaders during war? Experimental and panel-based evidence from Ukraine in 2022
When do citizens want a dominant political leader? A prominent Conflict-Sensitivity Hypothesis suggests such preferences arise during intergroup conflict, yet it remains untested in a real war. We report results from an experiment embedded in a two-wave panel survey with 1,081 Ukrainians (811 re-interviewed) at the start of Russia’s 2022 invasion. We find that respondents generally value competence and warmth over dominance in leaders. Yet, war i…
Female leadership: A transdisciplinary perspective
Intergroup Contact and Rice Allocation via a Modified Dictator Game in Rural Cameroon
Economic games in field settings have been subject to criticism concerning their ecological validity. We use social identity theory and the intergroup contact hypothesis as a framework to illustrate how economic games can be applied to field settings with higher ecological validity. A quasi-experiment in two rural Cameroonian villages studied participants' allocation of rice to co-inhabitants of their village. The villages are characterized by di…
How a Structural Solution to a Real-World Social Dilemma Failed: A Field Experiment on the First Carpool Lane in Europe
In the current field experiment we evaluate a structural solution to a real-life social dilemma by examining the effects of a carpool priority lane on judgments and preferences concerning the decision to commute by carpool (i.e., the presumed cooperative option) or driving alone (i.e., the presumed noncooperative option). Our general hypothesis was that this intervention would evoke a process of self-justification in solo drivers, arising from fe…
Commuting by car or public transportation? A social dilemma analysis of travel mode judgements
The current paper analyses judgements regarding the decision to commute by car versus public transportation in terms of a conflict between immediate self-interest and long-term collective interest (i.e. social dilemma). Extending traditional formulations of rational choice theory, the present study revealed that preferences for public transportation (i.e. the presumed cooperative option) in a standard commuting situation were enhanced not only by…
Concerns About the Privatization of Public Goods: A Social Dilemma Analysis
This study advanced a social dilemma analysis to examine the role of self-interested and prosocial concerns in the approval ofa real-life structural solution: the privatization of the British national railway system in 1996. As predicted, disapproval of privatizing this public good increased when people were more concerned about the transition costs of privatization, and about how privatization would affect their personal outcomes (e.g., travel c…
An interdependence analysis of commuting decisions
The current research advances an interdependence analysis of commuting decisions (i.e. commuting by car versus public transportation), delineating the determinants of an individual's outcomes in terms of own decisions, other commuters' decisions, and the combination or interaction of own and others' decisions (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978). Consistent with hypotheses, findings revealed that a concern with comfort led to a higher overall personal prefer…
Social identification effects in social dilemmas: A transformation of motives
Three experimental studies were conducted to examine two alternative explanations for the widely established positive effect of social identification in promoting cooperation in social dilemmas. We hypothesised that social identification effects could be either ascribed to (1) an increase in the value assigned to the collective good (i.e. goal-transformation hypothesis) or (2) an enhancement of trust in the cooperation of other group members (i.e…
Leadership in social dilemmas: The effects of group identification on collective actions to provide public goods
Two experimental studies investigated the role of group identification in the selection of and cooperation with leaders to manage public good dilemmas. The findings of the 1st study revealed that there was a general preference to select leaders with a legitimate power base (i.e., democratic, elected, and internal leaders), but these preferences were particularly pronounced when people's identification with their group was high rather than low. Th…
Exit, voice and loyalty: Analytic and empirical developments
This paper seeks to reconstruct and revitalize the famous Hirschman framework by providing a comprehensive review of the current use of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’. We begin by critically examining Hirchman's original account, and then look at the way his argument has been extended in different fields both conceptually and empirically. We suggest that while advances have been made, the results so far are somewhat disappointing given the perceptiven…
Globalization: Public good or bad
Intergroup and Intragroup Aspects of Leadership in Social Dilemmas: A Relational Model of Cooperation
Central, Individual, or Collective Control: Social Dilemma Strategies for Natural Resource Management
In this article, natural resource management is conceptualized as a social dilemma, a conflict between the short-term self-interest of users and the long-term collective interest of the user community. A self-interest versus community perspective is offered to explain individuals' decision making in resource dilemmas. The self-interest model assumes that users seek to maximize their personal benefits regardless of the collective implications. To …
Leader endorsement in social dilemmas: Comparing the instrumental and relational perspectives
This chapter examines the role of leadership in overcoming social dilemmas within groups. First, based on prior theorising and research we present two alternative perspectives on leader endorsement in social dilemmas, an instrumental and a relational perspective. Next, we systematically compare these perspectives in a series of experiments investigating leadership in social dilemmas created within small groups in the laboratory. The results of ou…
Genuine giving or selfish sacrifice? The role of commitment and cost level upon willingness to sacrifice
This research uses interdependence theory to examine the link between commitment, costs, and willingness to sacrifice within interdependence dilemmas occurring in intimate relationships. Advancing prior work, which has demonstrated a positive association between relationship commitment and willingness to sacrifice, we investigated the moderating role of the cost of sacrifice in a scenario‐based survey. Consistent with our hypotheses it was found …
Autocratic leadership in social dilemmas: A threat to group stability
Social Identity as Social Glue: The Origins of Group Loyalty
In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the role of social identity in fostering group loyalty, defined as staying when members can obtain better outcomes by leaving their group. In Experiment 1, high (vs. low) identifiers expressed a stronger desire to stay in the group in the presence of an attractive (vs. unattractive) exit option. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this basic finding and tested several explanations. The results suggest that hi…
Nice Guys Finish First: The Competitive Altruism Hypothesis
Three experimental studies examined the relationship between altruistic behavior and the emergence of status hierarchies within groups. In each study, group members were confronted with a social dilemma in which they could either benefit themselves or their group. Study 1 revealed that in a reputation environment when contributions were public, people were more altruistic. In both Studies 1 and 2, the most altruistic members gained the highest st…
Evolutionary Origins of Leadership and Followership
Drawing upon evolutionary logic, leadership is reconceptualized in terms of the outcome of strategic interactions among individuals who are following different, yet complementary, decision rules to solve recurrent coordination problems. This article uses the vast psychological literature on leadership as a database to test several evolutionary hypotheses about the origins of leadership and followership in humans. As expected, leadership correlate…
From Games to Giving: Social Value Orientation Predicts Donations to Noble Causes
The central purpose of the present research is to examine the ability of social value orientation (i.e., prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientation), as measured with methods rooted in game theory (i.e., decomposed games), to predict real-life prosocial behavior. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that individual differences in social value orientation are predictive of various donations. Relative to individualists and comp…
Gender Differences in Cooperation and Competition: The Male-Warrior Hypothesis
Evolutionary scientists argue that human cooperation is the product of a long history of competition among rival groups. There are various reasons to believe that this logic applies particularly to men. In three experiments, using a step-level public-goods task, we found that men contributed more to their group if their group was competing with other groups than if there was no intergroup competition. Female cooperation was relatively unaffected …
Leadership, followership, and evolution: Some lessons from the past
This article analyzes the topic of leadership from an evolutionary perspective and proposes three conclusions that are not part of mainstream theory. First, leading and following are strategies that evolved for solving social coordination problems in ancestral environments, including in particular the problems of group movement, intragroup peacekeeping, and intergroup competition. Second, the relationship between leaders and followers is inherent…
The Origins and Evolution of Leadership
Cooperation for reputation: Wasteful contributions as costly signals in public goods
Why do people persistently contribute to public goods and does it matter to them if their donation makes a difference? A costly signalling perspective suggests that donors might be more concerned about their reputation than the utility of their helping act. We report data on two step-level public goods experiments. We find that in public (vs. private) conditions, contributions go up even when the public good is already provided (Experiment 1) or …
Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas
Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence for this assertion. Current theories of sex differences in social behavior suggest that it may be useful to examine in what situations men and women are likely to differ in cooperation. Here, we derive predictions from both sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives on context-specific sex differences in cooperation, and we conduct…
Competitive altruism: A theory of reputation-based cooperation in groups
This article talks about altruism and morality. It defines altruism in terms of a design to benefit others at a cost to oneself, altruism is defined in terms of a motivation to help. It is often assumed that this motivation is conscious, although this is by no means necessary. Research suggests that humans are often not aware of why they behave as they do. Moral altruism is defined as a design to reward altruists and punish non-altruists. Moral a…
Cooperation in Modern Society: Promoting the Welfare of Communities, States and Organizations
Why do so many people volunteer to help others in need in society today? What makes people give up the convenience of driving their car to benefit a better environment? And why are citizens, in general, quite prepared to pay taxes to ensure adequate health care, and support for the elderly and unemployed? These are examples of a more fundamental question addressed in this book: why do people cooperate for the welfare of their community, state, or…
The Evolutionary Bases for Sustainable Behavior: Implications for Marketing, Policy, and Social Entrepreneurship
How can evolved human nature be leveraged to help eliminate or alleviate environmental problems? The authors examine the evolutionary bases of destructive and ecologically damaging human behavior. They propose that many modern environmental and social problems are caused or exacerbated by five adaptive tendencies rooted in evolutionary history: (1) propensity for self-interest, (2) motivation for relative rather than absolute status, (3) proclivi…
Psychology (43 works) · Social Psychology (39 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (26 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (23 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (18 works) · Economics (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (14 works)